Léon Foucault, also called Jean Foucault, in full Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault (born September 18, 1819, Paris, France—died February 11, 1868, Paris) French physicist whose “Foucault pendulum” provided experimental proof that Earth rotates on its axis. He also introduced and helped develop a technique of measuring the absolute speed of light with extreme accuracy.

Léon Foucault.

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Foucault was educated for the medical profession, but his interests turned to experimental physics. With Armand Fizeau, he began a series of investigations of light and heat. By 1850 he established that light travels slower in water than in air. In the same year he measured the speed of light, finding a value that is within 1 percent of the true figure.

In 1851, by interpreting the motion of a heavy iron ball swinging from a wire 67 metres (220 feet) long, he proved that Earth rotates about its axis. Such a “Foucault pendulum” always swings in the same vertical plane. But on a rotating Earth, this vertical plane slowly changes, at a rate and direction dependent on the geographic latitude of the pendulum. For this demonstration and a similar one using a gyroscope, Foucault received in 1855 the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London and was made physical assistant at the Imperial Observatory, Paris.

He discovered the existence of eddy currents, or “Foucault currents,” in a copper disk moving in a strong magnetic field, constructed an improved mirror for the reflecting telescope, and in 1859 invented a simple but extremely accurate method of testing telescope mirrors for surface defects.

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A key step was taken in 1849 by French physicist Jean Foucault, who showed that the bright orange lines seen in the light emitted by a carbon arc could also be observed as dark absorption lines in sunlight that was passed through the gas around the arc. Thus, a gas that can be stimulated to emit a particular colour will also preferentially absorb that same colour. Around 1859 German chemist...

...the toothed rim was used to determine the beam’s travel time. Fizeau reported a light speed that differs by only about 5 percent from the currently accepted value. One year later, French physicist Léon Foucault improved the accuracy of the technique to about 1 percent.

American John Draper photographed the Moon as early as 1840 by applying the daguerreotype process. The French physicists A.-H.-L. Fizeau and J.-B.-L. Foucault succeeded in making a photographic image of the Sun in 1845. Five years later astronomers at Harvard Observatory took the first photographs of the stars.

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(1819-68). French physicist Jean-Bernard-Leon Foucault was born in Paris. He is noted for his investigations in mechanics and optics. Foucault introduced and helped develop a technique of measuring the absolute velocity of light with extreme accuracy. He provided experimental proof that the Earth rotates on its axis.